its provisions if he thought fit, and that he would gladly
have done so there can be no doubt. Happily, however, owing to the
rapidity of Major-General Brock's movements, the news of the armistice
did not reach the belligerent commanders in time to prevent the
surrender of the one, or to snatch well-earned laurels from the brow of
the other.[86] This armistice was attended with very prejudicial
consequences, as it not only marred the attempt on Sackett's Harbour,
but it rendered unavailing the command of the lakes, which was then held
by the British.[87]

The successful commander, in transmitting by Captain Glegg his
dispatches to the governor-general at Montreal, expressed, through his
aide-de-camp, his intention of proceeding immediately to Kingston, and
from thence to the attack of the naval arsenal at Sackett's Harbour, on
Lake Ontario. Had its destruction been accomplished--and no one can
doubt that this was the proper period to attempt it, as the enemy,
dispirited by the capture of Detroit, would probably have offered but a
feeble resistance--the Americans could not, without much additional
difficulty and future risk of destruction, have built and equipped the
fleet which subsequently gave them the naval ascendancy on that lake,
and enabled them twice in 1813 to capture the capital of Upper Canada.
The armistice, however, caused a delay of nearly a fortnight in the
necessary preparations, as Major-General Brock returned from Detroit to
Fort George on the 24th of August, and the cessation of the truce was
not known to him until his arrival at Kingston, on the 4th of September.
The distance by water between Fort George and Kingston is about 160
miles, and from Kingston to Sackett's Harbour only 35 miles; so that the
destruction of the arsenal might have been effected early in September,
had not the armistice prevented the attempt. But, unhappily for the
interests of his country and the credit of his own fame, Sir George
Prevost disapproved of the proposition, and commanded Major-General
Brock to relinquish all idea of the contemplated enterprize, although
the official intelligence of the president's refusal to continue the
suspension of hostilities reached him at Montreal on the 30th of August,
a day or two _before_ Captain Glegg, with the dispatches and trophies of
the capture of Detroit. At the commencement of the war, a defensive
attitude was perhaps excusable, especially as the British cabinet seems
to have been